Your community thanks you – an update on the Christmas Toy Appeal

Christmas can be a time of year filled with joy and happiness. But many families find themselves struggling at Christmas, and these challenges have been intensified due to the economic strain from the fallout of Covid-19.

Last Christmas, we at Community supported Aspire, Ambition, Achieve‘s toy appeal for children in Newham. We asked those of you who did not have a local toy collection to support the Aspire, Ambition, Achieve toy appeal either by buying a gift or donating.

Thanks to the generous support given by you, our Community members, the Aspire, Ambition, Achieve toy appeal was able to provide:

• 2891 children with a Christmas stocking to open on Christmas morning
• 100 families (approximately 300 children) with a seasonal food hampers

From everyone here at Community, we want to say a massive thank you for your incredibly generous support to those in need.

Someone who can perhaps word it better than I can – a social worker who supports some of the children in Newham sent this message of thanks:

“Many of our children and their families are living in unsuitable housing, having to budget on very little money, being trapped indoors with no access to friends or extended family, especially this year a lot of what gives family and children joy is just not accessible at the moment. Enabling children and families to enjoy Christmas, to have some wonderful presents to open and something to look forward to on Christmas day will have made all the difference – especially seeing as we have gone back into lockdown; ensuring that Christmas was a happy time will hopefully make the next few months a bit more bearable. Thank you again, for allowing us to bring some real genuine joy, and warmth and kindness to these families.”